“One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
Proverbs 18:24 (NIV)
Someone once said, your best friend is your unpaid therapist.
I had a friend for fifty years who was not a professional therapist, but she had a natural gift for helping a person look deep within themselves and learn from it. I benefited from many conversations with my friend Helene, over the years. There were many things that we never agreed on, but the friendship we shared was solid in spite of our differences, which is what true friendship is.
In December of 2021 Helene was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and by February of 2022, she passed away. I lost another good friend a year later, but Helene was the one I knew the longest, or I should say she is the one who knew me the longest.
She witnessed my transition to a deeper faith in Christ during my college years. She was with me through many stages of my life. She knew my loved ones and was there when I lost some of them.
Friends are valuable just by giving us a sense of being understood and known, and we all have a need to be well known. I don’t mean well known in some famous kind of way, but known well, in a personal kind of way.
Today’s scripture states that there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. I believe that Jesus is our truest friend who sticks closer to us than a brother, but He blesses us with friends to enjoy as well.
Those kind of friends are a gift, and when we lose a gift through whatever means, it leaves a vacuum, called grief. I recently saw a meme that read “Grief is just unspent love.”
After any kind of loss, we need to find a new outlet, purpose, or direction of focus to reinvest our love.
For me, writing has become my redirected purpose. Through writing, I’m able to honor friends and loved ones who I’ve lost, as well as to encourage the faith of my current friends. What a blessing it has been to build friendships through these daily meditations.
Half of this year has already passed, and I think about all the people who are receiving these meditations. Some of you are friends, and some are friends of friends, who I haven’t met, but you are all gifts to me, and especially to God, who adores each one of you.
After I write each day, I pray and ask that everyone receive something special from the Holy Spirit, before I hit the send button.
Maybe we will all discover a new way to reinvest all the unspent love that is stored within us. Our Savior taught us by example, that love is meant to be spent.
God bless each reader with good friends, comfort and a sense of their own divine purpose, in Jesus’ name. Amen